Eleventh Century Archive
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The patronage of the Templars and of the Order of St. Lazarus in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
Posted on January 15, 2013 | No CommentsThe religious revival of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries saw the rise of a host of new orders ranging from the Cistercians and Carthusians to the Augustinian and Premonstratensian canons. In addition, it also saw the development of the Military Orders which originated in the Holy Land after the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, and fulfilled a mixture of military, hospitaller, religious and political functions. -
Aspects of the English royal succession, 1066-1199: the death of the king
Posted on December 28, 2012 | No CommentsThe death of any ruler in the twelfth century, even if it were expected, caused a considerable amount of shock and disquiet amongst those who were left behind. -
Manhood, kingship and the public in late medieval England
Posted on December 26, 2012 | No CommentsWere medieval kings like other men? A century’s work on the sacrality of kingship has tended to stress how kings differed from their fellow adult males, even fellow nobles. -
England: One Country, Two Courts
Posted on December 26, 2012 | No CommentsThe tension created by the two-court system is an integral part of England’s administrative and constitutional history. Exactly how integral has generated a considerable amount of scholarly work, from explanations of the sources of the conflict, to how the disagreement over jurisdiction was addressed throughout the Middle Ages, to what impact the issue had in shaping England’s overall political development. -
Abbo of Fleury: strategies for gaining influence and authority in tenth-century West Francia
Posted on December 17, 2012 | No CommentsThis dissertation analyzes how a tenth-century abbot, Abbo of Fleury (ca. 945 – 1004), used learnedness, church precedents, and intimations of heresy as strategies to renegotiate the bonds between powerful persons in order to increase his authority and influence within the church and kingdom of West Francia. -
The Consuetudines canonice of Lund
Posted on December 4, 2012 | No CommentsIn this paper we shall deal with the customs in Lund, the so-called Consuetudines canonice. -
Conquest or Colonisation: The Scandinavians in Ryedale from the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries
Posted on November 25, 2012 | No CommentsThe study of settlement history has developed within the fields of history, archaeology and geography. As a result much of the work carried out in settlement studies has borrowed the research and conclusions of scholars from other disciplines. -
The Effects of the Mongol Empire on Russia
Posted on November 25, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper looks at the Mongol Empire's impacts on Russia in terms of religion, art, language, government, and the ultimate rise of Moscow. -
“The English Exodus to Ionia”: The Identity of the Anglo-Saxon Varangians in the Service of Alexios Comnenos I (1081-1118)
Posted on November 20, 2012 | No CommentsMost historians who focus on this period have examined the effects of the Norman invasion and its aftermath on the island itself, but few have studied the journeys of those who left England in search for new opportunities in foreign lands. -
Haraldr the Hard-Ruler and his poets
Posted on November 19, 2012 | No CommentsIf Haraldr's contemporaries and the early writers did not know him as hardradi, what did they call him? -
An 11th-Century Scandal
Posted on November 18, 2012 | No CommentsComplaints from Damian about the church’s unwillingness to confront the sexual behavior of the clergy, however, met with inaction. In 1049 Damian wrote to Pope Leo IX (1048-54) about the cancer of sexual abuse that was spreading through the church: boys and adolescents were being forced and seduced into performing acts of sodomy by priests and bishops; there were problems with sexual harassment among higher clergy; and many members of the clergy were keeping concubines. -
Liber Confortatorius: The Book of Encouragement and Consolation, by Goscelin of St. Bertin
Posted on November 15, 2012 | No CommentsGoscelin's Liber Confortatorius is extraordinary both as an example of high-medieval spiritual practice and as a record of a personal relationship. -
New research on how the Bayeux Tapestry was made
Posted on November 15, 2012 | No CommentsA University of Manchester researcher has thrown new light on how the world famous Bayeux Tapestry was made over 900 years ago. -
Death on the Dorset Ridgeway: a Viking Murder Mystery
Posted on November 14, 2012 | No CommentsAngela Boyle recounts the extraordinary archaeological discovery made in the summer of 2009 in Dorset in southwest England. -
Death as a Symbolic Arena: Abbatial Leadership, Episcopal Authority and the “Ostentatious Death” of Richard of Saint Vanne
Posted on November 6, 2012 | No CommentsThis is another paper from Haskins in: SESSION IV: Abbots between Ideals and Institutions, 10th–12th Centuries. This paper talks about Abbot Richard of Verdun and the politics, and ritual surrounding his death. -
Abbot Majolus of Cluny, Ambassador to the Dead
Posted on November 6, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper was part of a intriguing session on monasticism entitled: SESSION IV: Abbots between Ideals and Institutions, 10th–12th Centuries. Here, we meet the unsung hero of Cluny's early history, Abbot Majolus. -
SESSION III: The Medieval Experience of Siege
Posted on November 6, 2012 | No CommentsThese are two papers from SESSION III: The Medieval Experience of Siege given at Boston College's Haskin's Conference. The first paper examined knightly interaction during sieges and the second paper delved into the actions of the besieged and besiegers during times of war. -
Crusaders in Crisis: Towards the Re-assessment of the Origins and Nature of the “People’s Crusade” of 1095-1096
Posted on October 15, 2012 | No CommentsIn his Historia Ierosolymitana, completed within one generation of the First Crusade, Albert of Aachen tells a curious story about some rustics, guided by divinely inspired goose and a she-goat to take the holy path to Jerusalem. -
Organa doctorum: Gerbert of Aurillac, organbuilder?
Posted on October 11, 2012 | No CommentsHe was born a peasant. Yet, through intelligence, political skill and uncommon good luck he came to be one of the most influential people in the Europe of his time...Pope Sylvester II. -
Tolerance for the People of Antichrist: Life on the Frontiers of Twelfth-Century Outremer
Posted on October 6, 2012 | No CommentsProfessor Jay Rubenstein deals with a fascinating aspect of the early Crusaders - how these Western European holy warriors quickly adopted the lifestyles and practices of the East, just within a few years of conquering the area. -
A Historiography of Chastity in the Marriage of Edith of Wessex and Edward the Confessor
Posted on October 4, 2012 | No CommentsWhile records of Edith's life and her marriage to Edward are poor, the historiography of those who narrated her life after her death is rich. In some ways, the historiography of her life was directly related to that of her husband's. -
BOOK REVIEW: Edric the Wild
Posted on October 2, 2012 | No CommentsA book review of the new release "Edric the Wild", by Jayden Woods -
Macbeth: bloody tyrant or popular king?
Posted on September 23, 2012 | No CommentsMost of us know Shakespeare's version of Macbeth. What was the reality? Jackie Cosh reports -
The Rare Oxford Machzor Vitry: A Rosh Hashana essay
Posted on September 17, 2012 | No CommentsThe Machzor Vitry work is, as mentioned above, not just a prayer book but includes much more, including many laws and a commentary. It consists of three portions; the halakhic legal portion, the liturgical formulae, and commentaries to the prayers taken from the aggadah. -
Anglo-Norman defence strategy in selected English border and maritime counties, 1066-1087
Posted on August 22, 2012 | No CommentsElla Armitage's analysisof early Norman castles in 1912 provides a clear espousalof this view, in particular her statement that in England the reasonsfor the erection of mottes seem to have been manorial rather than military; that is, the Norman landholder desired a safe residence for himself amidst a hostile peasantry, rather than a strong military position which could hold out against skilful and well-armed foes.
